The High Moors (5E)

**For the Old School Essentials version of The High Moors, click here **

The High Moors beckon...

Little is known of the Ieldra - a race of cruel and depraved elves that once ruled the northern tableland called The High Moors - and no one has seen an elf in living memory. Their civilisation is dead, destroyed by an incursion from the Far Realm brought about by their hubris. 

The ruins of the High Moors have lain undisturbed for centuries. With news from a successful expedition, people have finally considered the treasures waiting to be discovered in the forgotten north. 

A number of expeditions have now been dispatched to bring back magic and riches. Unfortunately, danger, horror and madness awaits most of them.

The High Moors is a freeform sandbox weird fantasy hexcrawl campaign for 5th Edition.

The High Moors features: 

• a huge wilderness sandbox ideal for a WEST MARCHES style campaign

• over 60 adventure locations, including three mapped and keyed dungeons

• 60 colour battlemaps for Virtual Tabletop Play
  

• sufficient content to take a party of five adventurers from 1st to 9th level (5E)

• fully detailed and mapped town of Hob’s Lake for your party to use as a local base

• full colour hex maps of the three wilderness zones 

• twenty new unique magic items

• nearly forty new unique monsters

• thirteen new playable races including bearfolk, owlfolk and uplifted apes!

• a new cleric domain: Freedom, and a new Paladin Oath: Annunaki (servants of the God King)

Ten Foot Pole Review: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6631

Age of Dusk Review: https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2020/11/11/review-the-high-moors-5e-osr-sleeper-cell/

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 2
How to use this book 2
Using the High Moors with your campaign world 2
Using the High Moors setting 3

The High Moors Campaign Setting 5
The High Moors beckon... 5
The World 5
The Known Lands 5
The Southlands 5
The Thornlands 5
The High Moors 5
What scholars know about the High Moors 6
Other lands 6
Random encounters in the Known Lands 6

The people of the Known Lands 7
Why all these restrictions? 7
Human cultures 7
The Avari 7
The Hegemony of Utnapishtim 8
The City State of Magog 8
Halfling culture 8
The Kachina 8
Dwarven culture 9
The Marzani 9
Bearfolk culture 9
The Ursidae 9
Goblin culture 9
The Muki 9
Giantkin culture 10
The Grigorians 10
Brief timeline of the Known Lands 10
Languages in the High Moors setting 10
Currency in the High Moors setting 11
The Planes in the High Moors setting 11
Magic in the High Moors setting 12
Clerics and deities in the High Moors setting 12

The Shining Ones 13
Games Master’s background 13
Culture of the Shining Ones 13
Secrets of the Shining Ones 14
Tier one secrets 14
Tier two secrets 15

Optional rules 16
Variant races 16
Use of factions 17
Experience Points for treasure 17
Avoiding the overuse of skill checks 17
Replacing dead characters 18
Reaction table 19
Plot hooks for characters 20

Journey to the High Moors 22
Time and distance 22
The Eanna, and Captain Jemdet 22
Incidents on the journey 22
The town of Hob's Lake 25

The High Moors Sandbox 28
Structure of the sandbox 28
Gamesmaster’s overview of the sandbox 28
Elven steel 29
Encounter difficulty 29
Random encounters in the High Moors 29
Monsters 32

The High Moors 35
Zone One: The Farms 35
Factions of Zone One 35
Activities of the factions 35
Locations in Zone One (locations 1-23) 36
Zone Two: The Temple District 63
Factions of Zone Two 63
Activities of the factions 63
Locations in Zone Two (locations 24-40) 64
Zone Three: The City Precincts 91
Factions of Zone Three 91
Activities of the factions 91
Locations in Zone Three (locations 41-62) 92
The Shining City 116
The Epilogue 139

Annex A - Statistics for Factions 140
Zone 1 140
Kurigalzu, Emissary of Utnapishtim 140
Ibycus, dwarven priest of Mirrabulous 140
The Northern River Trading Company 141
Zone 2 142
The Cult of Eyes 142
The Boar And Compass Trading Company 143
Zone 3 144
The Company of the Blue Feather 144
Vadim and Borislav, Demonslaying Giants 144
The Men Of The Stag 145

Annex B - Additional factions 147
Annex C - Prices and goods 155
Annex D - New Player Options 157
Cleric domain: Freedom 157
Paladin oath: Annunaki 157